Watchdog mechanisms are used in electronic devices, like watchdog devices, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs) and other devices having a CPU and executing programs. These electronic devices are usually part of an electronic system, e.g., acting as a system supervisor. A watchdog mechanism is typically based on a counter that is clocked by the system clock or a clock which is derived from the system clock. The counter issues a watchdog fault every time a predefined counter state is reached. The watchdog fault state entails a system reset in order to bring the system back into a well-defined initial state in case the counter is not serviced by a watchdog trigger before the predefined counter state is reached, such as because the program issuing the watchdog trigger hangs or malfunctions. However, the system reset may not be the appropriate means to overcome the problems of the CPU. In case the CPU has severe technical problems, a mere reset may cause a loss of internal data. Also, during the time needed for the reset, the CPU is not available for further data processing, which might be a waste of CPU processing time, if only a minor and temporary problem exists.